Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: What I Learned, How It Went

Is it really over???

I know I’ve said this a lot, but man, it feels like the challenge just started, yet somehow it feels like it went on forever.

I was so tempted to surprise you all and do one more week of the challenge to do some of the top requested drawings that are left, but my family is home on vacation this week and as our youngest has a birthday this week as well, that had to be my priority. I promise to get to that list soon though!

On to the recap!

What I learned:

The biggest thing I learned was that taking almost a year off from working is not good for me mentally. Every time I saw the boxes for my studio and office still in the sunroom waiting to be unpacked or my future office/studio still in shambles, I’d get more frustrated, anxious and agitated. Every day that I got to do a drawing, I felt all of that melting away. Yes, my boxes are still there and the office is no where near finished, but I had my joy back.

How it went:

I think this year’s challenge went a lot better than last year! I think knowing what to expect and what parts were going to be hard ahead of time really helped me prepare better. I also didn’t deal with the burnout like I did last year, although there were a few days where I just did not want to draw an animal again!

I also really enjoyed my followers on Facebook guessing the subject each day! I loved the interaction and their creativity in their guessing. I still owe them a cat’s butt at some point 😉

For next time:

I will definitely be taking the weekends off again. It helped prevent the burnout that I had last year, and even though we’re so close to school, having all three kids in activities, it just made life so much easier not having to worry about fitting the drawings in. I will also plan better for which month I choose for the challenge! This month was rough with all of the kid’s activities, so it made trying to get all the drawing, editing, and posting done around that was exhausting and stressful most days.

I will be making some drastic changes to the challenge next year. While I do plan on continuing the challenge, I will no longer be doing a drawing a day.

Wait, what?

I haven’t fully decided on the challenge title yet, but it will still be creating a full fledged piece a day, but it could be a watercolor painting, an oil painting, or yes, even a drawing. There were so many pieces I wanted to create this challenge, but doing them in just graphite pencil was…well, boring. It will also break up the monotony I dealt with this year. Last year’s challenge had a diverse subject list, and this year was mostly animals. While I don’t mind that necessarily, having other things like landscapes and sunsets and just some color thrown in is going to be so wonderful!

Differences from last time:

A huge gold star to one of my besties for recognizing a big change this year!!!! She asked me what I was doing different as she noticed a difference in the drawings from last year, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. This year I still had the same goals (increasing inventory, bettering my skills, learning that I can and should take the time for my art, etc.), but I added another one that I didn’t share: don’t just draw something just to draw it, but make it a real piece. What that translates to is last year I’d concentrate on the subject I was given to draw, but not always the surroundings (background, foreground, etc.). This year I wanted to have each piece be more like a snapshot in time, where there was a background, a foreground, the subject itself. It makes the pieces more well rounded, more finished feeling, and just better. I didn’t do it with every drawing, but the majority of them I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone and tried it.

I sold drawings and had many requests for prints as well! Last year there were only a couple print requests and no drawing sold, so I’m not sure if it’s because I have a bigger following this year or maybe the drawings are better, but I am so encouraged and humbled. Thank you to everyone who requested a print or bought a drawing!!!!!

Products:

All of the originals that are available are in my Etsy store, and prints have started to roll out as well. Note cards will be coming once my office is put back together.

Other Thoughts:

Favorite drawing: It’s like making me choose a favorite child: I can’t do it! I really am so in love with each and everyone this year!

Least favorite drawing: Snake, but only because I had to look up snake reference images 😉

FAQ:

What are you doing with the list of things you haven’t gotten to?

That is a fantastic question, and one that I don’t have a definitive answer to yet. I still have about 20 or so suggestions on my list, and I have a few ideas of what to do: extend the challenge another week or two (or more like four to finish the list!), save the list for next year, or randomly do a drawing a day here or there throughout the year. I’m probably going to do the last option, so be expecting random drawings to pop up here and there before next year’s challenge!

You can view all of the drawings from this year’s challenge here.

What was your favorite drawing from the challenge?